| Wednesday, September 11, 2002 | |
by Jane Smith
For everyone who knows and loves Steve Griffin and
for those who have only seen his #3 mini stock
wheeled around their track, this is the battle
that Steve has ahead of him. In the coming
months, Steve will need the love of his "racing
family" to help him thru this battle.
Steve was hurt in an auto accident last Saturday night.
He has numerous serious and singificant injuries.
Steve has a 4" tear to the lateral fold on the exterior
of his liver. For now, that has not presented a "major"
problem. The top fold of the liver is lying on the tear
and it appears to be clotting. However, this is the
injury that potentially could be the worst. If he
can go a week to ten days without losing the clot, liver
surgery likely would not be needed.
All of Steve's right side ribs are fractured. This was
confirmed yesterday by the doctors. His doctors are not
sure if that played a role in his right lung collapse
on Monday. However, since the collapse and insertion
of a chest tube, he has been breathing pretty well and
on his own again. The ventilator is not "forcing" his
air intake. He initates all breaths and the vent simply
aids in filling his lungs to the capacity that is set.
Steve's scalp was completely separated from the skull
on the rear right quadrant of his head. For the time
being, the surgeons have simply stapled it back into
place at this time. Should there be a problem in the
brain, this could be easily removed. Permanent
stitching will take place later.
His left shoulder was completely torn from the socket
fragmenting the orbital area of the socket. Orthopedic
surgeons have re-set the shoulder as well as possible
for now and braced his arm across his chest to limit
movement.
Plastic surgery has been performed on his right ear.
It was totally split deep into the ear canal. They
did a remarkable job of reconstruction. For now, it
is not known if Steve will have any hearing impair-
ments.
The right rear hip area was scraped completely to the
pelvic bone. The pelvic bones were fractured in two
areas: side and rear. Thankfully, the fractures were
set in alignment by the ortho surgeons and a good
healing process should result in total alignment. Skin
grafts will be necessary in this area after recovery.
Many other areas, especially his left arm, back and
abdomen area, are abraded deeply as well. They will
wait for those to begin a healing process before
considering further grafting needs.
On Tuesday, Steve received his first units of blood.
This is a great sign in that it doesn't appear that he
has any significant amount of internal bleeding.
Mr. Griffin, Steve's dad, would like to thank everyone
for their thoughts and prayers. It has made Steve's
family feel much better knowing Steve's "Racing Family"
cares about him so much.
For now, only family is allowed to see Steve. For now,
he needs your love and prayers to see him thru this
battle.
Steve would not want his other family worrying about
him so we will keep you updated on his condition,
when he can have visitors, and when to start
overloading him with well wishes.
Please keep Steve Griffin and his family in your
prayers for prayers are very powerful when done by a
whole family.
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